The field is set for this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which will begin February 19th from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and conclude with the championship game on February 27th. The Scotties, which is the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, features one team representing each of the 10 provinces, one representative from the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and last year’s winner who will return as Team Canada.
Jennifer Jones and her team from Winnipeg enter the tournament as defending champions and are among the favorites heading into this year’s Scotties. However, they will be challenged by a mix of teams with experience, former junior champions, and newcomers to the Scotties.
Team Canada: Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer, Dawn Askin, Janet Arnott
Jennifer Jones and her team has been a dominant force at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, as they have won 3 straight titles and will be looking for their 5th championship since 2005. Leading up to this year’s Scotties, Jones created some controversy by replacing long-time third, Cathy Overton-Clapham with 21-year-old Kaitlyn Lawes who is a former Canadian Junior Champion.
Prince Edward Island: Suzanne Birt, Shelly Bradley, Robyn MacPhee, Leslie MacDougall, Tricia Affleck
With the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd, the team from PEI will be looking for a strong showing. Skip Suzanne Birt has twice won the Canadian Junior Championship, and will be making her 5th appearance at the Scotties. Twice she has made it through to the playoff round, and will be looking to take things a step further this year by capturing the Canadian title.
Nova Scotia: Heather Smith-Dacey, Danielle Parsons, Bliss Comstock, Teri Lake, Melanie Comstock
This team from Halifax will have their work cut out for them at this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts considering the strength of the opponents they will face. Heather Smith-Dacey does have experience at the Scotties, but this will be her first appearance since 2004. She has had success by winning the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship last year with husband Mark Dacey, and will look to carry that momentum into the competition.
Newfoundland and Labrador: Stacie Devereux, Steph Guzzwell, Sarah Paul, Heather Martin, Julie Devereux
Stacie Devereux and her team from St. John’s will be making their first appearance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They will look to gain experience and possibly pull off a few upsets along the way. The team looked strong while qualifying for the Scotties, by going undefeated in the Newfoundland Provincial Championship.
New Brunswick: Andrea Kelly, Denise Nowlan, Jillian Babin, Lianne Sobey, Jodie DeSolla
For the 3rd straight year, Andrea Kelly will be representing New Brunswick at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Her team finished both the 2009 and 2010 tournaments with 5-6 records. This year they will look to use experience to their advantage, in order to pick up a few more wins and qualify for the playoffs.
Quebec: Marie France-Larouche, Annie Lemay, Veronique Gregoire, Veronique Brassard, Joelle Sabourin
After a one-year absence, Marie France-Larouche and her squad will be returning to the Scotties. Expected to be a top contender, Larouche has been to the Canadian Championship on four occasions, each time making it to the playoffs. In 2004, she went right through to the finals before losing to Colleen Jones.
Ontario: Rachel Homan, Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk, Lisa Weagle, Sherry Middaugh
Playing in their first Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the defending Canadian Junior Champions will look to prove that they are ready to compete with the best teams in the country. To help with experience, Team Ontario has brought along Sherry Middaugh as an alternate. For Middaugh, this will be her 7th appearance at the Scotties; which means she will likely act as a mentor for this young team.
Manitoba: Cathy Overton-Clapham, Karen Fallis, Leslie Wilson, Raunora Westcott, Breanne Meakin
Cathy Overton-Clapham has already taken a big step towards overcoming the disappointment of being let go by Jennifer Jones. She formed her own team and won the Manitoba Provincial Championship to qualify for the Scotties. Overton-Clapham will be making her 11th appearance and while this will be her first time as a skip, the incentive to out-perform her former teammates could make Manitoba a force to be reckoned with.
Saskatchewan: Amber Holland, Kim Schneider, Tammy Schneider, Heather Kalenchuk, Jolene Campbell
Last year, Amber Holland represented Saskatchewan as a skip for the first time at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Her team finished 6-5 and just missed out on making the playoffs by one game. The team’s determination has paid off and they will return to this year’s Scotties. Winning the Saskatchewan Provincials was no easy task in itself. Holland needed to defeat one of the world’s top ranked curlers, Stefanie Lawton, in order to make it through to the Canadian Championship.
Alberta: Shannon Kleibrink, Amy Nixon, Bronwen Webster, Chelsey Bell, Crystal Webster
Shannon Kleibrink may never have won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but her team will be one of the favorites this year. Kleibrink has had much success throughout her career, winning the Canada Cup in 2005, a bronze medal for Canada at the 2006 Olympics, and finishing second to Jennifer Jones at the 2008 Scotties. This year she will be looking for her first title.
British Columbia: Kelly Scott, Jeanna Schraeder, Sasha Carter, Jacquie Armstrong, Shannon Aleksic
This team from Kelowna won back-to-back Scotties titles in 2006 and 2007, and will look to get back to their winning ways in 2011. Kelly Scott’s team is always one of the top contenders when they enter a tournament, and this should be no different. Scott made it through to the playoffs at last year’s Scotties but was eliminated by Ontario.
Yukon/Northwest Territories: Kerry Galusha, Dawn Moses, Wendy Miller, Shona Barbour, Sharon Cormier
Kerry Galusha will be representing the Territories at this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts for the 7th time. Her biggest highlight came in 2009 when her team defeated Jennifer Jones in round-robin play. This year Galusha will be looking to make it to the playoffs for the first time ever.
Round Robin and Playoffs
All 12 teams in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts will play each other once during the round robin portion of the competition. The 4 teams with the best records will move on to the playoffs. The 3rd and 4th place teams will play a sudden-death elimination game. The 1st and 2nd place teams will play a game in which the winner moves onto the finals, while the loser will play in the semi-finals against the winner of the 3rd and 4th place teams. The winner of the semi-final will then play in the championship game on February 27th. The winners of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts will go on to represent Canada at the World Curling Championship later this winter. They will also earn an automatic berth into next year’s Scotties to be held in Red Deer, Alberta.
Sources
Canadian Curling Association: “2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts – Countdown”, Canadian Curling Association website, January 15, 2011.
Wyman, Ted and Grassie, Sean: “Lawes to Replace Cathy O.” Toronto Sun, April 24, 2010.
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